In the 1960s, a guard at the local Louisiana State Prison (Angola) and self-described treasure hunter dug up graves at the site. He removed hundreds of artifacts from the area, which had been deposited as grave goods with the more than 100 graves. The Tunica felt that he had stolen tribal heirlooms and desecrated the graves of their ancestors and were outraged at the violations. He tried to sell the artifacts to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, but the transaction stalled when the museum found that he did not have legal title to the items.
In the 1970s, archaeologists excavated the site and uncovered large amounts of pottery, European trade goods, and other artifacts deposited as grave goods by the Tunica from 1731 to 1764 when they were in residence.
The treasure-hunter sued the landowner to claim the artifacts were his in Carrier v. Bell. The court ruled that the artifacts were buried in graves, not abandoned, and so belonged to the Tunica tribe.[2]